ATLANTA – They wanted to finish the regular season with the best record in the NBA, but it might not happen now.

They wanted to secure home-court advantage for all four rounds of the playoffs, but that might not be possible.

The Lakers have only themselves to blame if it doesn’t happen.

They were no-shows for Sunday afternoon’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, falling with a thud, 86-76, in front of a sellout crowd of 20,148 at Philips Arena and dropping two games behind the league-leading Cleveland Cavaliers with nine to play.

The Lakers’ five-game winning streak ended in a hail of missed shots, fumbled passes and squandered opportunities. Their first loss in the opening five games of their seven-game trip left them at 58-15; the Cavaliers are 60-13.

“It definitely wasn’t a good game for us,” Pau Gasol said after leading the Lakers with 21 points and 11 rebounds. “As a team, we didn’t play well. I don’t know exactly why we were so out of whack and missing so much, but that was the way it turned out.”

Gasol made 7 of 10 shots, the only Lakers starter to shoot 50 percent. What’s more, he did not record an assist for only the second time this season, which said less about his passing skills and more about his teammates’ lack of shooting touch.

Kobe Bryant scored 17 points on 7-for-19 shooting, playing a little more than 37 minutes despite a sprained right ankle and an upset stomach. He also had eight rebounds, four assists and four turnovers, and couldn’t rescue the Lakers from themselves.

No one could.

Lamar Odom scored nine points on 3-for-14 shooting. Derek Fisher had eight points on 3-for-11 shooting. Trevor Ariza had seven points on 3-for-11 shooting. All of which helped to explain the Lakers’ 35 percent shooting as a team.

The Hawks weren’t much better, making only 39.3 percent. They opened the third quarter by making five consecutive 3-point attempts, however. Those haymakers turned a 40-39 halftime lead into a 72-58 advantage going into the fourth.

The Lakers never recovered.

In fact, they never got started. They opened the game by scoring 13 points in the first quarter, a season low. They finished by scoring 76, also a season low. In between, they played like a bunch of guys who just met for a pickup game at the park.

Their previous lows were 16 points in the first quarter of a loss at Portland on March 9 and 79 points in a loss at Denver on Feb. 27.

Those were two other examples of games in which they struggled to master the most basic fundamentals.

“(Sunday’s) game comes down to the basics of basketball, which is to gain penetration into the lane and taking good shots,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.

In other words, the Lakers stood around and chucked bricks at the basket from too far away. They didn’t get into the paint frequently enough to adequately exploit their size advantage over the Hawks, who did not start a player taller than 6-foot-10.

The Lakers simply failed to get the ball into the hands of the 7-foot Gasol.

“Our outside shots weren’t going down, so we should have gone inside a little more,” Gasol said in his typically understated manner. “This is just one of those games when we didn’t realize how to attack the Hawks. They really confused us (defensively).”

To be sure, the Hawks made it tough on the Lakers.

The Lakers also made it tough on the Lakers, however.

Now they have nine games in which to catch the Cavaliers and finish with the best record in the league. They have five games at home and four on the road, including Tuesday at Charlotte and Wednesday at Milwaukee to conclude their seven-game trip.

Cleveland also has nine left, including home games against San Antonio and Boston and a road game at Orlando.

The Cavaliers have the league’s best home record, with their only loss in 36 games coming Feb. 8 against the Lakers.

“We have no idea,” Jackson said when asked if the Lakers can catch the Cavaliers. “Who knows what’s going to happen with Cleveland? They have to win and we’re certainly not going to win out, but we’ll continue to put pressure on them.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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